No Arabic abstract
We construct a new family of null solutions to Maxwells equations in free space whose field lines encode all torus knots and links. The evolution of these null fields, analogous to a compressible flow along the Poynting vector that is both geodesic and shear-free, preserves the topology of the knots and links. Our approach combines the Bateman and spinor formalisms for the construction of null fields with complex polynomials on $mathbb{S}^3$. We examine and illustrate the geometry and evolution of the solutions, making manifest the structure of nested knotted tori filled by the field lines.
Knots are familiar entities that appear at a captivating nexus of art, technology, mathematics, and science. As topologically stable objects within field theories, they have been speculatively proposed as explanations for diverse persistent phenomena, from atoms and molecules to ball lightning and cosmic textures in the universe. Recent experiments have observed knots in a variety of classical contexts, including nematic liquid crystals, DNA, optical beams, and water. However, no experimental observations of knots have yet been reported in quantum matter. We demonstrate here the controlled creation and detection of knot solitons in the order parameter of a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. The experimentally obtained images of the superfluid directly reveal the circular shape of the soliton core and its accompanying linked rings. Importantly, the observed texture corresponds to a topologically non-trivial element of the third homotopy group and demonstrates the celebrated Hopf fibration, which unites many seemingly unrelated physical contexts. Our observations of the knot soliton establish an experimental foundation for future studies of their stability and dynamics within quantum systems.
An initially knotted light field will stay knotted if it satisfies a set of nonlinear, geometric constraints, i.e. the null conditions, for all space-time. However, the question of when an initially null light field stays null has remained challenging to answer. By establishing a mapping between Maxwells equations and transport along the flow of a pressureless Euler fluid, we show that an initially analytic null light field stays null if and only if the flow of the initial Poynting field is shear-free, giving a design rule for the construction of persistently knotted light fields. Furthermore we outline methods for constructing initially knotted null light fields, and initially null, shear-free light fields, and give sufficient conditions for the magnetic (or electric) field lines of a null light field to lie tangent to surfaces. Our results pave the way for the design of persistently knotted light fields and the study of their field line structure.
We consider the variation of the surface spanned by closed strings in a spacetime manifold. Using the Nambu-Goto string action, we induce the geodesic surface equation, the geodesic surface deviation equation which yields a Jacobi field, and we define the index form of a geodesic surface as in the case of point particles to discuss conjugate strings on the geodesic surface.
In contrast to Hamiltonian perturbation theory which changes the time evolution, spacelike deformations proceed by changing the translations (momentum operators). The free Maxwell theory is only the first member of an infinite family of spacelike deformations of the complex massless Klein-Gordon quantum field into fields of higher helicity. A similar but simpler instance of spacelike deformation allows to increase the mass of scalar fields.
Higgs fields are attributes of classical gauge theory on a principal bundle $Pto X$ whose structure Lie group $G$ if is reducible to a closed subgroup $H$. They are represented by sections of the quotient bundle $P/Hto X$. A problem lies in description of matter fields with an exact symmetry group $H$. They are represented by sections of a composite bundle which is associated to an $H$-principal bundle $Pto P/H$. It is essential that they admit an action of a gauge group $G$.